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Radioman
9 April 2018 - 6:19am

Peter's response to clarify what James Cridland wrote makes some very good sense. I for one was also up in arms with James' column, however the way Peter has interpreted his column has put a better slant on the point of the exercise.

Let's put it another way in particular to breakfast radio. Nowadays it seems to be "What's your opinion? Call us on xxx-xxx and tell us what you think". Not so long ago breakfast radio was full of well written, produced and FUNNY sketch comedy. Now that was entertainment. I pine for a breakfast team that makes radio fun & pokes fun at anyone & everyone, not slickly produced, "technically perfect" robots where the listener does half the work.

No more John and Garry while I drive to work you have to be joking 2ue they were almost as good as green lights all the way so fresh and prepared to talk about any thing plus Garry's humour. Now what you are you are trying to do take on the mmm grill team with talking heads talking endless sport. I can remember a time when my radio was on 2ue all day every day now it would be lucky if it got 5 minutes.

I couldn't disagree more. If only listeners knew just how much radio is voice tracked, they'd feel cheated and rightly so. Live radio is supposed to be spur-of-the-moment stuff. It's never perfectly polished and that's how the audience actually knows it's live. It's like having a conversation with someone in the street. You'd be less inclined to listen if you knew the other person was just playing back something recorded earlier.

For my money, it's the other way around. Voice tracking and pre-recording is lazy radio. Presentation is all in the preparation. If you know what you are going to say, you can say it and still sound polished.

And let's be honest about what voice tracking is really about. Weekend and night-time voice tracked shows are all about saving money. Why pay someone to do a show live out of office hours when we can get them to do it during the weekday and save a packet in penalty rates.

Yes, economically it makes sense, but it will never be as entertaining as what can happen spontaneously. And presenters should always be on their toes in a way that they can never be when they are not live. When a person knows anything they say can be cropped and re-recorded if the wrong words are said, they become too relaxed and complacent. Then, suddenly when they HAVE to go live, the pressure is on and that's when the real mistakes start to come out.

Let's stop cheating our audiences and advertisers. Let the presenters do what they were trained to do. After all, with so many other things, if you don't use it, you lose it.

Radio like any other kind of service is a business and all business involves risk. Having had a look at the lineup, the theme of sport is consistent. This is in contrast to the former "Talking Lifestyle" ('TL') format in which while the segments were interesting in their own right, it was too fragmented. A person listening to travel may not be the same person listening to finance. TL's fragmented format is analogous to Radio National ('RN') where RN's low ratings have been explained as the person listening to "Background Briefing" may not be the same listener to "God Forbid" or "The Science Show".

As I have mentioned in other fora, "Macquarie Sports Radio" ('MSR') may well perform satisfactorily in Sydney since it's another kind of talk format changing to another kind of talk format. I also mentioned that where stations formerly accustomed to being music and changing to talk, the ratings plummet. Examples included "Magic"-branded stations to TL, The same is true for stations that convert from music to talk such as 3MP to MTR even though the former MTR presenters are top rating.

Therefore a lot of money needs to be spent in the Brisbane market in order to create an awareness of the MSR brand. A cursory look at Brisbane's ratings indicates that Brisbane is a music-oriented station, though 4BC (talk) has improved to around 6.2 to 8 depending on time of day.

For Melbourne, there is already SEN. Perhaps MSR could rate higher. BUT as I said, the 1278 frequency has been recognized as a music station for a long time and like Brisbane may need a lot of resources to promote awareness. That's unless MML will be relying on word-of-mouth promotion.

As I have said in other fora, if MSR does not work in Melbourne or Brisbane, it could well revert to an automated music station. But please not another hackneyed 'hits and memories'/'gold'/'classic hits' format because it is so crowded on the AM, FM and DAB+ stations.

A final note on those who liked/disliked the 'TL' or like/dislike the 'MSR' format. Apart from using the radio's "Off" switch, Australia is well served with a plethora of music and talk stations, streaming (IP) stations from all over the world as well as short wave.

In regards 'free-to-air' ('FTA') terrestrial radio. For those who like talk, have any aggrieved person who did not like 'TL' or does not like 'MSR' given thought to listen to 'RN', where there are interesting 'current-affairs' discussions especially on breakfast with Fran Kelly, Geraldine Doogue (Sat) and Hugh Riminton(Sun). Then the drive shows with Patricia Karvelas and the Hon. Amanda Vanstone. Have they thought of ABCNewsRadio? For those who like more conservative-style talk, there is 2SM and its associated networked stations or for those who like to listen to papers and magazines, the RPH network.

When it comes to radio, Australia is well served, It's not too hard to change the frequency (tuning) control.

Obviously this guy doesn't understand live radio.
Sure certain bits are better produced ... interviews, comedy bits ... but live radio is real radio. Voice-tracking is lazy. But it takes a real radio person to be able to do it live, consistently.

Just heard the BAD news that Linda Ross’s programme is being axed for the sake of sport. Can’t believe the station wouldn’t have polled the overwhelming success of this segment. The vast number of callers validate there are those out there who want this program. More sport???
Good luck, you’re loosing a vast army of listeners. Bye. Please announce when station programmers are replaced with those who are in touch with what the community wants. 954 doesn’t exist for me any more.

For me as a listener - I much prefer listening to a live show on the radio. I enjoyed John Peel much less on the few occasions when he wasn't live and there were none of those classic John Peel moments., and you could ALWAYS tell the difference - the pre-recorded shows just seemed to lack "life"

As a broadcaster - sometimes you have to pre-record and edit a show - for example when you are presenting highlights from a recent live event. But the temptation is to over produce and polish - which I believe is just not actually appreciated by most listeners...... I would be interested in other thoughts (from a listener POV!)